SOC/ANTH 390: Research Methods
Course Description and Syllabus
Dr. Kimberly MartinFALL 2017 TR 10:20-11:55
E-mail: , Web Site: http://kimberlymartin.com
HB 105, Office Hours: MW 11am-12pm, T 2:00-5:00pm
To sign up for an office hours appointment,
go to http://www.signupgenius.com/FindASignup and enter my email address
Course Description.
BHV 390 will provide you with the information you need to understand plan and conduct high quality empirical research. You will gain a working knowledge of the scientific method and will be introduced to the major types of research design, data gathering methods, and analytical techniques used by behavioral and social scientists, including experiments, content analysis, questionnaires, interviews, ethnography, participant observation, and document study. You will be doing library research on a topic of your choice and planning a research project during this course. Some students will use this plan to complete their Senior Thesis. Information on this course, its requirements and assignments are available online at http://kimberlymartin.com.
Course Goals
The successful student will:
· Know where and how to locate academic information through library searches.
· Be able to organize information into a coherent and complete written description of what is known about a given topic.
· Understand the basic components of a strong research design, including central terms and concepts and how they are applied to developing a research project.
· Be able to develop research designs around many different research topics.
· Understand the major ethical issues involved in doing research with human participants.
· Know the major ways of collecting data in the behavioral and social sciences.
· Know the major ways of organizing and analyzing data.
· Know the components of a research report.
Required Text
Martin, K. (2009) Step by Step Research: A Methods Workbook. Purchase online on http://kimberlymartin.com and bring your receipt to pick up the book from the Department Secretary or at my office during office hours.
Course Expectations
The focus in this course will be on critical thinking. This means that in addition to memorizing and knowing information, you will be asked to actively define, categorize and sort facts, ideas, concepts and methods to insure that you fully integrate them into your knowledge base. The more you learn in this class, the easier your senior thesis experience will be. Because of this, my goal for you is to KNOW the material, not to place it into short-term memory for the purpose of passing tests. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the date listed in the schedule. Late work will not be accepted. I will accept NO assignments via email; submit all assignments in hard copy AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS on the due date. The term project is required in order to complete the course.If you want to do well in this course, you need to attend class. Your participation in the form of discussion, questions, comments and presentations is one of the most important parts of the course. You are responsible for ALL information and materials dispensed during class time. Please turn off any electronic devices unless we are using them for classroom exercises, and take care of personal needs before or after class. If you are using an electronic device in class outside of class exercises, you will be asked to leave that class session. Your attention needs to be on what is going on in class, not in what is going on elsewhere.
Workload. This course has been planned according to university policy. Undergraduate courses require the assignment of two hours of work outside class for each hour spent in class. Because this is a four-unit class, it requires 60 hours of in-class time. The homework assigned for this class is, in keeping with nation-wide university standards, intended to fill a total of 120 hours outside of class over the sixteen-week semester. You should, therefore, be prepared to spend approximately eight (8) hours outside of class reading, participating in assigned activities, writing assignments and doing library research during each week of the term. Because only one third of our course time is spent together in the classroom, I will not be able to cover all the material in the readings during class. You must be able to assimilate readings on your own, and/or to come to me if you do not understand material in the readings that is not being covered in class. I am more than willing to help if you let me know what material is difficult for or confusing to you.
Academic Honesty. Students are expected to do their own work and to do original work for each class in which they are enrolled. It is unacceptable to copy work from other students. It is unacceptable to copy work directly from books, articles, or other sources including the Internet. It is unacceptable to use work done by another person. It is unacceptable to use the same work to satisfy requirements for two different classes, even if they are not in the same department. Any breach of the academic honesty code will result in an F grade for the course and referral to the Department Chair and the Dean for disciplinary action. Academic dishonesty can be grounds for expulsion from the university. Please read the section on Academic Honesty in the Rights and Responsibilities chapter of the ULV catalog carefully.
Class Participation
Five percent of the grade for this class is based on participation. Participation means being present not only physically, but actively listening and contributing to what is going on in class. Students who take notes, ask questions, offer comments, and share experiences relevant to the topics of the day will receive high grades. Students who use electronic devices for activities not related to class, do work for other classes, monitor cell phones, text, are habitually late, or frequently go in and out of the classroom during class will lose participation credit.
Grades.
The final measure of your academic success is what you can show you have learned in written and oral assignments. Grades in this course will not be assigned according to whether you try or whether you spend large amounts of time on the coursework, but on your mastery of the material and your ability to demonstrate your new knowledge in writing. Assignment grades will be weighted according to the following percentages:
5 Exams @ 5% 25%
Final Exam 25%
5 Exercises @ 5% 15%
Literature Review First Submisson 15%
Class Participation 10%
Term Project Final Submission 10%
Total 100%
Exam grades and the final grade for the course will be calculated using the following grading scale:
3
87% and above = A
85-86% = A-
83-84% = B+
77-82% = B
75-77% = B-
73-74% = C+
62-72% = C
60-61% = C-
58-59% = D+
52-57% = D
50-51% = D-
less than 50% = F
3
Quizes and the Final Exam. Quizes may consist of definitions, multiple choice, matching and/or short essay questions. Quizes will cover all assigned readings, exercises, lecture, videos and class activities. The final exam is comprehensive. Grades will be assigned according to the percentage of correct answers. Grades will not be curved.
Exam dates are firm and not negotiable. Make-up exams will only be given in appropriate circumstances as determined by the instructor, must be completed within one week of the scheduled test date, and are proctored by the Department Secretary, Stephanie Abundiz, between the hours of 8am and 5pm Monday through Friday.
Exercises
Five exercises are required, one for each section of the course. One exercise is due at the beginning of class on each Quiz. Exercises will be handed out in class, and you will be practicing the material in the exercises in groups in class before the exercise is due.
Research Proposal
You are required to submit a term project in order to complete this course. The term project is a Research Portfolio that should be submitted in a small, three-ring notebook. The Research Portfolio consists of six parts in the following order:
1. a title page in the format of the sample in the Workbook (pg. 220)
2. an 8-10 page literature review ending with your research questions and/or hypotheses
using American Anthropological Association Format OR the American Sociological
Association Format (see the Appendix at the end of the textbook).
3. a reference section beginning on a new page
4. a research proposal using the format handed out in class.
5. copies of the certificates for completing the Institutional Review Board human
Subjects certification required for doing research on the La Verne Campus. This
certification tests include is the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Human Research Protection – Online Certification for Researchers.. The link to the certification test can be found under Training on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Home Page.
6. The graded first submission of the literature review.
I will read and comment on a first submission of the literature review portion of the proposal. The first submission is the literature review ONLY. The other parts of the portfolio are not due until the end. First submission means COMPLETE version of your FINISHED paper including title and reference pages. No abstract is required. Grades on the final project will be based on the overall quality of the paper, as well as how well students have used my first submission comments to improve their work. The written components of the project must be submitted in ASA or AAA format. The workbook has the basics of these formats in an appendix at the end. Spelling, grammar and formatting count. The Center for Academic Success in the Campus Center has writing tutors if you need help with writing, as well as an online writing tutoring service.
Literature Review. The literature review is an 8 to 10 page paper based on a minimum of 8 to 10 references. The page count does NOT count the title page or reference section. This paper is a library research paper that summarizes what we know about the topics that are part of your proposed research project. See the sections of the assigned Workbook and review the lecture notes on literature reviews for information about selecting a topic, gathering academic references, reading and extracting information from your references, and organizing material into a literature review. You should be collecting academic references and working on this literature review THROUGHOUT THE TERM.
Ideas, facts, examples and reasoning taken from the writings of others must be cited regardless of whether you quote the source or use your own words to explain the information. Paragraphs, sentences or phrases taken word for word from sources must be put in quotes and cited in the text of the paper using one of the acceptable formats. Use no more than three quotes that are no more than 100 words each (a quote is NOT a citation). You will be submitting the first draft of your paper to SAFEASSIGN through Blackboard to be screened for plagiarism.
Course Schedule on the Next Page
Schedule of Topics and Assignments
(may be changed at instructor’s discretion)
Dates / Topics / Workbook Readings8/29-9/12
9/14 / Course Introductions
Science
Correlation and Causation
Library Searches, Library Presentation
Theory
Literature Reviews
QUIZ 1 & Exercise 1 Due / Chapters 1-7
9/19&10/3
10/5 / Research Design:
Units of Analysis
Explanatory and Exploratory/Descriptive Designs
Basic and Applied Research
Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Research
QUIZ 2 & Exercise 2 Due / Chapter 8
10/10-24
10/26 / Emic and Etic Research
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Validity and Reliability
Operationalization of Variables
Writing Research Questions and Hypotheses
QUIZ 3 & Exercise 3 Due / Chapter 9
10/31-11/14
11/16
11/16 / Sampling Techniques
Surveys
Interviews
Content Analysis
Ethnographic Fieldwork
Secondary Data Analysis
Ethical Research
QUIZ 4 & Exercise 4 Due
FIRST DRAFT OF LIT REVIEW FOR PORTFOLIO DUE *8-10 PAGES / Chapters 10-12 & 16
11/21-12/5
12/7
12/7 / Writing a Research Proposal
Recording and Analyzing Data
Writing a Research Report
The Methods Section
The Results Section
The Discussion Section
Title Pages and Abstracts
QUIZ 5 & Exercise 5 Due
FINAL SUBMISSION PORTFOLIO DUE / Chapters 13-15 & 17-19
12/14 / FINAL EXAM (FINAL’S WEEK) 9:50-12:35
3